Original Gangsters Podcast · Original Gangsters, a True Crime Talk Podcast

The El Chapo of Asia: Chinese Drug Lord Tse Chi Lop

·1 hr 1 min·4 clips

Guaranteed delivery was his insight, and he offered replacement at no charge if police seized the load.

1. Original Gangsters Podcast centers this episode on Chinese organized crime and Seiji Low. 2. Jimmy Bucciolato and Scott Bernstein host Stephen Marsh, a writer for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and Esquire, and Marsh says he writes about organized crime. 3. The episode asks why Seiji Low matters if many listeners do not know his name. 4. Marsh says Low was "the greatest criminal of all time" and compares him to "the Jeff Bezos of organized crime." 5. He says Low was making about 18 billion a year in profit and was losing 60 million euros a night at Baccarat. 6. Marsh says Low was responsible for 90 percent of New York City's heroin in the 1990s. 7. He also says Low later lowered methamphetamine prices in Asia by almost two thirds. 8. The discussion follows Low through Toronto, Vancouver, and New York as connected hubs in his network. 9. Marsh describes the Big Circle Boys as a small set of families with roots in Communist China's Cultural Revolution. 10. He says Hong Kong police histories describe them swimming 12 kilometers from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. 11. The episode emphasizes that the Big Circle Boys used AK-47s, hand grenades, and careful scouting, including noticing a traffic camera rotating five degrees a week. 12. Marsh says their Canadian model changed because crime in Canada tolerated smuggling and money laundering but treated violence with extreme gravity. 13. He says this pushed them toward nonviolent, high-value business with the Hells Angels, the Triads, and the Risotto family in Montreal. 14. Marsh calls their business logic customer satisfaction, guaranteed delivery, and not creating headaches. 15. He says Seiji Low's breakthrough was replacing seized meth loads at no charge. 16. Marsh argues that this guarantee made him impossible to refuse for groups in Taiwan, Japan, Australia, and other markets. 17. The tone is conversational, argumentative, and heavily informed by reporting and policing details. 18. Jimmy and Scott keep interrupting with comparisons to New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Black Mafia Family. 19. Listeners interested in transnational crime, Canadian policing, and drug-market logistics will find this useful. 20. Listeners wanting a pure street-gang story or a simple single-city history may skip it.

As heard by us

A globe-spanning mob story that treats underworld power like logistics.

Chinese organized crime is framed as a cross-border system, not a local crew, and that choice gives the episode its shape. Stephen Marsh has Jimmy Bucciolato and Scott Bernstein map the central figure across Canada, Australia, Asia, and the route that ends with his arrest in…

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Why you'd press play

You want a Chinese organized-crime figure mapped across a truly global network.

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